As an American who has been fascinated by all things British for several years now, I admit there is one expression that I keep seeing over and over again in various postings by our British friends that has me totally baffled.

Alex: "I'd rather spend an evening with the Corries than sit in an English folk club listening to some conceited bore with one finger in his ear and the other up his ass…"

Ian Kirk: "Usually bearded blokes who run folk clubs that are soooo traditional that unless your floor spot is a turgid ballad with 93 verses sung ala Ewan MacColl with your eyes shut and your finger in your ear you get frowned at and ignored for the rest of the evening and not asked to sing again."

Mick Lowe: "Apart from the Spinners, you can also blame Aran Jumpers, people singing whilst sticking their fingers in their ears and singing unaccompanied... if you want to be superficial that is."

Susanne (skw): "If a paper like The Observer can define a folk festival as 'drinking your beer with one finger in your ear' (May '99 - as a joke, but still), what do you expect?"

Gervase: "I've lost count of the number of Aran jersey/beard/finger-in-ear/pewter tankard taunts I've heard, and what really hurts is that so many of them are true."

Someone please enlighten me: What is the significance of the finger in the ear? Does anybody really do this? Who? Why? (I've never seen such a thing in the US, and I presume it is/was only done in the UK.)